Bloemfontein – Two people were shot and wounded in the Hamilton industrial area in Bloemfontein on Thursday, Free State police said.

A former employee entered a business in Piet Human Street around 07:30, police spokesperson Annelie Wrench said.

He handed a letter to his former manager in his office in the presence of the business supervisor. The 59-year-old man then took out a 9mm pistol and shot the manager, Nico de Jager, in the leg. The supervisor, Shaun Swanepoel, was also wounded.

The man ran away but handed himself over at the Mangaung police station soon after. The motive for the shooting was still under investigation.

Netcare 911 spokesperson Santi Steinmann said paramedics found one man with serious injuries and the second one moderately hurt.

Both were treated on the scene and taken to hospital.

– SAPA

Pretoria – The state had an obligation to subdue the Lonmin mineworkers’ strike in Marikana, the Farlam Commission of Inquiry heard on Thursday.

It had created an exceptional situation and the police had to intervene, police Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Scott told the commission’s public hearings in Pretoria.

“I think we can agree that Marikana was an exceptional situation, looking at the preceding days’ history. The SA Police Service [SAPS], as the authority of the state had to act,” said Scott.

“This [strike] was not something that was simply going to die down. At some stage the police needed to act in order to restore law and order to the area.”

Scott was being cross-examined by George Bizos, for the Legal Resources Centre and the Bench Marks Foundation. The inquiry is chaired by retired Judge Ian Farlam.

Bizos asked: “You say in your statement it was a matter of concern that you believed that compliance with the law must be enforced [at Marikana]. What law did you have in mind?”

“[The] gathering was illegal because it was represented by armed strikers, which is in contravention with what the Constitution says about their right to protests and picket.”

Bizos asked again: “What law did they contravene?”

Numerous laws contravened

Scott said numerous laws had been contravened in the days before 16 August, with the murders of security guards and police officers, and with the protesters carrying dangerous weapons.

Bizos asked if the police intervened on 16 August to punish the mineworkers, who gathered at the koppie because of what they had done previously.

Scott rejected this suggestion.

“That is not within the jurisdiction of the police to act in that way,” he said.

Bizos asked whether the police had the right to kill the 34 mineworkers because they were armed with traditional weapons. Scott said the police’s plan did not include killing anyone.

“The planned action was simply to disperse, which starts with a verbal warning. There is no punishment in that aspect,” said Scott.

He drafted the plan which was to be used to disperse and disarm the striking mineworkers. It was referred to as the “Scott plan”.

Scott said the shooting of 34 miners was not due to the plan, but came down to the actions of individual police officers.

“Was it borne in mind that [the plan] led to the result which left 34 dead and over 80 seriously wounded?” Bizos asked.

Scott replied: “It is not necessarily the result of the plan that I put forward. It is individual actions that it takes to pull a trigger. That is the question that needs to be put to each individual that pulled the trigger, whether they acted in self defence as had been briefed to them.”

‘Officers should testify’

Scott said the officers who shot the protesters should testify about the circumstances they faced at the Marikana koppie.

He could not testify on their behalf.

“Where is the proportionality when there was not a single policeman with a scratch as against the 34 deaths and approximately 80 seriously wounded [miners]. Where is that proportionality, colonel? Bizos asked.

Ishmael Semenya, for the police, objected and said Scott had repeatedly stated that this could best be answered by each officer individually.

Bizos responded: “My learned colleague [Semenya] is wrong, with great respect. I submit that those who planned, those who adopted the plan, those who purported to execute it, are all responsible.”

The commission is investigating the deaths of 44 people during strike-related unrest at Lonmin platinum’s operations at Marikana, near Rustenburg, last year.

The police shot dead 34 people, mostly striking mineworkers and arrested 250 on 16 August 2012.

In the preceding week, 10 people, including two policemen and two security guards, were killed.

The public hearings will resume on Monday.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A Johannesburg metro police officer was injured when a protesting hawker threw a brick at him on Thursday.

He was taken to hospital with a shoulder injury, said spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.

Violence erupted in Jeppe Street, central Johannesburg, during a clean-up operation at 14:00.

“The hawkers are contravening the by-laws of the city, which is conducive to crime. So the [Johannesburg metro police department] is enforcing the by-laws and removing the hawkers from where they should not be,” said Minnaar.

The by-laws, which are listed on the city’s website, prohibit a street trader from running a business if it obstructs a pedestrian’s use of the sidewalk or is on a sidewalk less than 4m wide.

Businesses can also be shut down if they create a nuisance, damage the surface of a public road, and create a traffic or health hazard.

Minnaar said the protest abated later in the afternoon.

The operation would be enforced throughout the CBD, he said.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A light aircraft crashed shortly after take-off on a farm outside Stellenbosch in the Western Cape on Thursday, paramedics said.

ER24 spokesperson Christo Venter said:”After it crashed, it started to burn. Fire-fighters and various paramedics rushed to the scene, and the fire-fighters extinguished the blaze,” he said.

Venter said the pilot, who is believed to be the only one in the plane, died.

Officials were investigating the accident.

– SAPA

Bloemfontein – A 15-year-old Lesotho boy was wounded in a shooting on a Free State farm that borders Lesotho, police said on Thursday.

The Free State land owner, a 53-year-old Lesotho man, was arrested after the shooting near Ladybrand on Wednesday afternoon, police spokesperson Martin Xuma said.

Police said the boy and four friends, aged between 13 and 15, were apparently hunting on the farm with sticks and their dogs.

Xuma said the farm owner shouted at the boys to leave his property and they ran away.

While chasing the boys away the man allegedly fired three shots in their direction.

One boy was struck in the back.

Police were called and the wounded boy was taken to hospital, where he was recovering.

The other boys fled back to Lesotho.

The farm owner would face a charge of attempted murder in the Ladybrand Magistrate’s Court.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – A group of Bekkersdal residents marched to the nearby Simunye township on Thursday, Gauteng police said.

“Their intentions are not known. At this stage, the group is peaceful and police are on the ground to maintain law and order,” police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini said.

More police from different units were sent to the area.

“Today the situation is still quiet in Bekkersdal and police are monitoring the area,” he said.

On Wednesday, a local councillor fired shots into the ground when protesters tried to attack him. They ran away and no one was injured.

Police confiscated the gun and opened a case of discharging a firearm.

In a separate case a foreign shop owner was arrested on Wednesday for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

Residents told the police the man had a gun which he had used to shoot and wound a 14-year-old boy.

Officers searched the shop and found the gun.

The shop owner would appear in the Westonaria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges of attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm.

The boy was recovering in hospital.

Shooting

In an unrelated shooting, a 20-year-old man was shot dead in Bekkersdal on Wednesday night. It was not linked to the protest, Dlamini said.

A car pulled up outside a shack around 23:00 on Wednesday.

Two of the four occupants got out and insulted the two men standing outside the shack before shooting at them.

One man was hit and died on the scene.

The assailants got back into the car and sped off.

– SAPA

Cape Town – The government has no firm position on calls for Parliament to be moved from Cape Town to Pretoria, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said on Thursday.

The issue of possibly relocating Parliament has come up several times since the late 1990s, with many top ANC MPs supporting a move – saying billions of rand could be saved as officials would not have to move between the two cities, and that having two centres of government was an apartheid-era arrangement.

Chabane suggested Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s concern about the exorbitant costs of moving ministers and departmental delegations between the two cities should not be seen as a firm decision to relocate the legislature.

“We move a huge chunk of administration from time to time to come and attend to issues in Cape Town,” Chabane said.

“What the statement [from Gordhan] says is that we need to find the ways to reduce the number of officials we bring down.”

Pretoria is the country’s administrative capital, while Cape Town is the legislative capital.

“We have to pay accommodation, transportation… and allowances that have to be paid, so therefore we think there is a case for us to be able to reduce that expenditure in the short term, but Treasury also, with public works, have been asked to see what is the cost for us to maintain the two capitals,” Chabane said.

He said it should be noted that a decision to move Parliament was not one to be made by the executive, but by the legislature itself.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – Protesters in Bekkersdal burnt down the community centre on Thursday, police said.

Police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini said several people were arrested in connection with the fire.

“I cannot, at this stage, say how many people were arrested. I will release a statement with the figures later today [Thursday].”

Protesting residents set the building alight after 14:00. Dlamini was not sure whether the blaze had been extinguished.

“Fire engines have been deployed and police are stationed everywhere in the area.”

Dlamini said the situation in the area was still tense.

A group of Bekkersdal residents marched to the nearby Simunye township earlier in the day.

Police said the group was peaceful.

– sapa

Johannesburg – One of the men implicated in the death of Kirsty Theologo after an alleged Satanic ritual found God through the incident, the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg sitting in Palm Ridge heard on Thursday.

Clinical psychologist Suzette Heath said Robin Harwood seemed to believe his role in Theologo’s killing was all part of God’s plan.

Theologo, 18, was doused with petrol and set alight on a hill in Linmeyer in October 2011 as part of a “soul-selling” ritual.

She died in hospital a week later, while her friend, who was 14-years-old at the time, survived the attack.

“The whole thing went wrong so he [Harwood] believes this is how God led him to meet with Him [God],” said Heath.

“He is sad that Kirsty was killed, but remorse is a complex emotion.”

Reading from her notes, Heath said Harwood told her: “I do regret that it happened… I can’t look at it in a negative way because then I will break.”

Harwood did not think of helping the girls after they were set alight. He and his co-accused left the injured girls on the hill.

“He said he ran away… He didn’t think of helping her.”

Heath told the court she could not ascertain whether Harwood and his co-accused were concerned about the girls’ well-being following the attack, as they went clubbing the next day.

Memory loss

Earlier, she explained why Harwood failed to remember all the events that happened on the night of the ritual.

“It could be that he wants to lessen his contribution to the incident,” said Heath.

While Harwood might have been aware of his actions, he might not have fully understood the consequences.

Peer-pressure, alcohol, drugs, and the fact that the crime involved dealing with the devil could have contributed to Harwood not backing out.

Harwood, Linden Wagner, Courtney Daniels, and Harvey Isha are on trial for Theologo’s murder and the attempted murder of her friend.

Two others, Jeremy King and Lester Moody, earlier confessed to the crime and were each sentenced to 17 years in prison, five of them suspended.

– SAPA

Johannesburg – The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ruled on Thursday that the Airports Company SA (Acsa) and Primedia acted unconstitutionally by censoring an advertising campaign at OR Tambo International Airport, said activist group Avaaz.

Avaaz took the companies to court after its posters depicting President Jacob Zuma watching over a lioness about to be shot with a handgun were removed from the airport in Kempton Park.

The caption on the posters read: “President Zuma can save her [the lioness’s] life”.

The posters were part of a campaign to prevent trade in lion bones.

“This decision is a victory for citizens everywhere who now can begin, again, calling on President Zuma to end the brutal lion bone trade before lions are wiped out for good,” said Avaaz campaign director Emma Ruby-Sachs.

Avaaz said Acsa asked Primedia to remove the posters because it was concerned that the inclusion of Zuma’s image and name in the poster would cause a “public relations nightmare”.

Acsa spokesperson Unathi Batyashe-Fillis said the company would comment after studying the written judgment.

– SAPA